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An enterprising advocate for openness in government has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the FBI for all information the agency uses related to Carrier IQ, the company under fire for monitoring user activity on smartphones—and his request was flatly denied. The FBI claims data gathered by Carrier IQ software is exempt from disclosure laws because it is located in an investigative file that was "compiled for law enforcement purposes" and "could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings."

Michael Morisy, a journalist who founded an organization called MuckRock to ease the process of filing FOIA requests, wrote the FBI on Dec. 1 asking for "any manuals, documents or other written guidance used to access or analyze data gathered by programs developed or deployed by Carrier IQ.... In addition, I ask for expedited processing as this is a matter of immediate news interest: The existence of Carrier IQ's software was recently disclosed and has immediate ramifications on constitutionally protected privacy rights."

The FBI acknowledged receiving his request within a few days, and then issued a blanket denial, which cites a law exempting records from disclosure if releasing them could interfere with law enforcement proceedings. "In applying this exemption, I have determined that the records responsive to your request are law enforcement records; that there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records; and that release of the information contained in these responsive records could reasonably be expected to interfere with the enforcement proceedings," an FBI records management official named David Hardy wrote to Morisy.

As we noted in several stories in the past few weeks, Carrier IQ software is installed on more than 140 million phones, including various Androids and iPhones, although Apple says it is in the process of stripping it out. Carrier IQ, handset manufacturers and wireless service providers have said the software is used only for diagnostic information to improve service, and that it is not used to record keystrokes or read users' messages. However, the companies have faced questions from Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and class-action lawsuits. How much data Carrier IQ collects from smartphones and what happens to it have not been fully answered, and the FBI's statement does not clarify whether it is investigating Carrier IQ to determine if its software violates any federal laws, or if it is using data from Carrier IQ for other investigations.

Morisy speculates that "What is still unclear is whether the FBI used Carrier IQ's software in its own investigations, whether it is currently investigating Carrier IQ, or whether it is some combination of both—not unlikely given the recent uproar over the practice coupled with the US intelligence communities reliance on third-party vendors. The response would seem to indicate at least the former, since the request was specifically for documents related directly to accessing and analyzing Carrier IQ data."

Morisy plans to appeal the FBI's denial of his public records request.

UPDATE: A Carrier IQ spokesperson has denied the company provided any information to the FBI, according to a report in VentureBeat. However, Carrier IQ data is provided to wireless carriers, so the FBI could have received the data in question from another source.